Black Lives Matter: London shows solidarity with the US after police shootings

In the wake of the killing of five police officers in Dallas on Thursday, as well as the shooting of two black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota earlier this week, white and black people have been holding marches all over the world to protest against discrimination and call for changes to police race relations.

Hundreds of people gathered in London on Friday and marched towards the Houses of Parliament in response to the fatal shootings of black men Philando Castile and Alton Sterling.

The Black Lives Matter demo continued today in Windrush Square, Brixton, a place that is representative for the black people in the UK, as it was named after the ship that brought the first West Indian immigrants to the country.

Protestors and activists wanted to show solidarity with America and carried with them banners reading “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” and their mantra “Black Lives Matter.” Brixton Road was partially blocked as several hundred demonstrators marched to Brixton police station.

Police violence towards the black community has long been a problem in the US, but lately it seems to have escalated. Statistics from the FBI show that black people are much more likely to be killed by police than white people. Thirty-one percent of police killing victims in 2012 were black, even though they account just for 13 percent of the US population.

Another protest is planned for tomorrow in the British capital in Oxford Circus.